Poppy Overland, Spirit of Laughter
by Zorua Illusion
Summary: Jack's first believer was his little sister three years after he drowned. Too bad she died three days after she started believing. Good thing the Moon revived her, and that the Sandman is amazing at presents.


Little Poppy Overland was not exactly sure _what_ to think when she heard her brother's laughter. She especially wasn't sure when she could've sworn she saw a person very similar to her brother being the source of that laugh, having just face planted into the ground.

"But papa, I saw him! He's right…" But Poppy couldn't see him anymore. Her father didn't believe her, she gathered, from the way he patted her on the shoulder. She looked again, seeing him.

"Hello! Hello!" Her brother's voice sounded before the brother-but-not-her-brother disappeared in a flash of snowflakes.

"He was right… there…" Poppy was near tears.

"Excuse me, can you tell me where I am?"

A few rapid shots of blue light, gasping, and a sudden snowfall.

"Get inside Poppy, you're nose will freeze."

"Not if Jack's not here to nip it," she cried before running into their house, heading straight for Jack and hers room. She dived onto her bed and cried.

The next day, her brother's voice as back. And the next day, and the day after that, every day until the first day of spring, her brother's voice was there. And Poppy was able to cope with the loss of her brother, for his voice was right there, having fun with the kids.

But then winter left, along with Jack's voice, and Poppy fell for a few months before remembering what her brother's voice had said that winter.

"Don't be sad, I don't want you to be sad," he had whispered to a crying child, "come on, let's have some fun, snowballs and forts, happy thoughts!"

The child ignored his pleas, making Poppy confused, so she asked another child, who looked at her and shook his head.

"Jack is gone. You're just hearing things."

But Poppy kept hearing her brother, and kept seeing a flash of white-hair-blue-eyes-pale-as-death-brother-not-brother.

And Man in the Moon noticed how Poppy heard her brother's voice, and at his unknowing insistence, kept the children laughing, sometimes by pulling pranks or by silly faces. Things her brother would've done were he still Jackson Overland.

You see, the reason why Poppy could only see flashes of Jack was because she believed in _Jackson Overland,_ her brother, but not in _Jack Frost_, who, while mostly Jackson Overland, now had bits of winter-star-moon-nature, as a dragon might say. It's what allowed him to bring winter and fun.

Three winters passed this way, with Poppy not saying anything about Jack's voice, and not being able to reply without people thinking her insane. So she grew up, and was twelve years old on the third winter.

"Jack Frost."

Poppy stopped sewing, the pieces of fabric held in her left hand and needle and thread in her right.

"That's all you ever told me. But no one ever hears or sees me… why can't they?"

"I can hear you," Poppy was able to reply, as both her parents were out, her mother catching up with friends and her father hunting.

But Jack's voice didn't hear. But a magical thing happened-

Poppy was now able to see Jack Frost, as she believed in _him_ now, too.

It's such a sad thought that Jack Frost would never find out about his first believer.

The settlement called Burgess was attacked three days after Poppy started to believe, and poor, poor, unfortunate little Poppy Burgess Overland was killed by an arrow to the back, as she had taken the arrow in place of a boy who had only just lost his first baby tooth. She didn't have any regrets as she died.

Well, _almost_ died.

Man in the Moon made a decision- he had made one a long time ago, or a short while ago, depending on your perspective.

A day later, Poppy Overland's body was missing from those of the dead.

No, instead, it was walking around, perfectly fine… except that her brother-not-brother wasn't there, and people couldn't see her anymore. She also had a few changes to herself.

Her brown hair was still brown, although it had some steaks of bright yellow that faded into green on the very tips. Her dress was now white with yellow trimmings, and the bottom embroidery had blue detailing. **(A/N: It's basically the same dress she wore in the movie with a few color changes.)**

She was about to go off and find her brother-not-brother when something stopped her.

_Not yet, laughing child, not yet, not yet, too soon, too soon, wait, wait!_ The moon beams said.

They kept saying that and saying that and saying that, for three very long centuries. She was never heard nor seen, but that didn't bother her too much. It wouldn't have bothered her at all if she could've gone to see her brother-not-brother but the darned Moon wouldn't let her! It was completely unfair!

Then she found out through the Wind (that befriended any relative of the frost child, whether the frost child knew the person was a relative or not) that he didn't know his past… her didn't remember her. Not until a day after Easter, 2013.

But the Moon still forbade her from going to find him, to reassure him that she wasn't dead!

Well, there was an unforeseen problem. Poppy couldn't tell which moon beams were moon beams and which were false. Nature spirits could tell easily, but could never listen to moon beams, as they were under Mother Nature's jurisdiction. So the moon beams that Manny sent down to tell her "go, go!" were corrupted into saying "stay, stay!"

No one to this day is quite sure as to how the moon beams are corrupted. No one really wants to find out.

So Poppy waited. And waited. And waited. And finally, 302 years later, a visitor came around Christmas. It was December 23rd, 2015, and Poppy was hanging out in an auditorium somewhere in the US that was showing Jeff Dunham. While he was certainly not by any means the cleanest comedian, and her brother would have a heart attack to know she's watching him, he really was very funny.

So she sat and watched and laughed, ignoring the feeling she got when someone walked through her.

No one sat in the chair she was sitting in, though, that was a relief. No one paid attention to her, either- no one could see or hear her, so she laughed, long and hard, and gave inspiration to new bits that the comedian wasn't quite sure how to finish. She kept doing this until, out of the corner of her eye, she saw a flash of gold. Turning to look at it, she saw the one and only Sandman.

"Oh, hello," she greeted pleasantly. The Wind whispered "Friend Frost child! Friend snowflake! Relative nature-moon-star!" (Translation: Friend of Jack, meet relative of Jack.)

The Sandman flipped a bowler cap in salutation. Then he made a picture of Jack and a question mark.

"What about Jack?"

Sandy made a DNA strand, placing sand figurines of Poppy and Jack on either side and divided the strand in two, each one going to a figurine.

"Are you asking if I'm his sister?"

Sandy had a thoughtful look before moving his hand in a "kind of" motion and pointing at his head.

"Are you asking if I remember that I'm his sister?"

A nod.

"Yes."

Sandy clapped and tugged gently at her arm, getting a questioning glance. Sandy attempted to explain through pictures, but a woman walked through his sand at one point, and this is where he pointed outside of the comedy club.

Poppy shrugged and followed the Sandman outside.

They went into an abandoned alleyway nearby, where Poppy could still hear the laughter caused by Jeff, making her smile. Sandy smiled as well before launching into his story telling.

After awhile, Poppy was able to piece together that this was Jack's second Christmas with the Guardians, and all he wanted was to know what had happened to his younger sister. Tooth had looked at her baby teeth and found two missing, resulting in the conclusion that she was a spirit, and Manny revealed that she was the spirit of laughter and his confusion at her not speeding away to see her brother instantly.

"He keeps telling me I can't!"

A question mark.

"I've been asking for the past 302 years, Sandman. Every time, the answer I get is _'not yet, laughing child, not yet, not yet, too soon, too soon, wait, wait'_!"

Sandy expressed his alarm at that, since Manny had told him that for the past two years he was telling the laughter spirit that it was okay for her to see her brother. Then he remembered something Jack told him.

"_There are corrupted moon beams that usually say the opposite of hat Manny actually is saying. It's hard to explain how I can tell, since you're not under Mother Nature's wing."_

That meant corrupted moon beams have been lying to Poppy for two years and she couldn't tell because she was the Moon's spirit, not Mother Nature's or a mixture of the two, like Jack was.

Sand puffed out from his ears like steam before he came up with an idea, which he relayed to Poppy.

Sandy's idea: Poppy would be Jack's Christmas present. They would wrap her up in a large box- with holes for air, of course- the night before and set it under the tree. Jack would open the box and out comes Poppy saying "Not Dead!"

Okay, not the last part, but Sandy had caught glimpses of BBC's Sherlock and some animations to go with it and had to add that in there.

Poppy agreed and flew off to find Jack a Christmas present from her.

So, two days later (because North was out all night on Christmas Eve and slept Christmas day, and so the celebration was on the 26th for the Guardians and on the 27th for all spirits), poppy and Sandy were sneaking into the workshop, hiding Poppy, then wrapping a box and putting Poppy in an hour before everyone arrived. She had her gift to Jack in her hands.

She had to peep through one of the holes when she heard brother-not-brother-but-moon-star-frost-wind-brother's voice.

"Hey! What's up Sandy, give any good dreams lately?"

There he was, in all of his snow spirit glory, the only difference from when she last saw him centuries ago being the blue hoodie in place of blouse, vest, and cloak.

She shifted back, trying not to make a sound.

Another half hour passed, the buzzing proving Toothiana and her mini fairies were there and the smell of chocolate and her namesake proving that Bunnymund had arrived.

The distinct Russian accent meant that it was time to start opening presents.

Poppy didn't see what the Guardians had gotten each other, but she heard variants of "thank you" being passed around. Poppy felt the box she was in move slightly.

"To: Jack Frost, From: Sandy," North read.

A slight chill marked that her brother had come over. The ripping of paper before a flood of light meant that her brother had opened the box, and then…

Blue met golden-brown.

"Poppy?"

"Not dead," Poppy joked. (Sandy, hearing this, silently fist pumped.)

"Poppy!" Jack picked her up out of the box and swung her around in a hug, making her laugh.

"Best. Present. Ever," Jack muttered into her shoulder after he put her on the ground. He refused to let go of her.

"Agreed," Poppy said.

Tooth and the fairies all went "Aww." Sandy fist bumped North, and Bunny rolled his eyes with a smile.

The two siblings never strayed too far from each other since, and every time they went to sleep, they looked up at the moon and said "Thanks, moon, but watch your moonbeams!"

The moon would shine just a bit brighter for a second each time, acknowledging the two.

All was well once more. Until Jack and Poppy started playing pranks.

**A/N: Or that one time where Sandy was a better gift-giver than Santa.**

**Anyway, shout out to Irish Lover Girl, for making me review on **_**every single chapter **_**of her story, "Just Things". Also, for approving of this idea.**

**How this idea came about: I was watching RotG and I noticed a little girl who looked extraordinarily like Jack's sister… looking right at Jack and conversing with a man. Thus, this idea was born, because Jack seriously needs to catch a break in his life and Jack's sister needs lots more happy endings.**


End file.
